About Leiko Ikemura

The particularity of Leiko Ikemura's pictorial language lies in its gentle melding of Eastern and Western influences. Born and raised in Japan, yet spending the past 40 years living and working in Europe, Ikemura is an artist working between two distinct visual traditions and cultures. The free-flowing gestures and pared down forms of her paintings, drawings, and prints tends towards a simplification and abstraction. Shapes and contours… Read more

About the artwork

In a characteristic fusion of the traditional and the contemporary, Ikemura presents the viewer with an armed Amazonian. The simplistic forms, earthy color palette, and flat appearance of the work are reminiscent of cave paintings and tribal culture. The depicted woman not only has a sword in hand but also wears modern high heels on her feet—two symbols of power from totally different ages. Since the 1990s the female figure has been central to Ikemura's work and this piece embodies her fascination for womanhood across different cultures and eras.